In the deep, dark layers of the office, Sally the content creator slaves away at her keyboard, surrounded by towering cubicle walls. She isolates herself to maintain pristine focus while writing blog and social content for your brand.
Well, this doesn’t sound like much fun.
At times, this is the reality of a content marketing writer, but behind every post, original image, campaign and social post, is a team that must collaborate. It’s essential for success (and if you’re doing it all by yourself, you may want to consider getting some help.)
The better your team works together, the better work you all can do. Here are a few ways to collaborate like a pro.
1. Make and nurture relationships
Even if you think you know everything there is to know about the brand you’re writing for, chances are, there are others in the office who have a different perspective that you have yet to cover. Chat with sales reps at the water cooler to better understand customer concerns, or sit-in in on a sales call or two. Think beyond the office by attending events and scouting for ideas. Also incorporate stakeholders to keep them up-to-date with metric reports and editorial calendar plans. They’ll appreciate the opportunity to be involved and may be able to provide valuable feedback to escalate results.
There are so many opportunities for content to fill a sales strategy. Consider interviewing your sales rep team to find out common times in the sales process where leads start to ask more questions or begin to falter. How can you as a digital marketing help guide these potential clients through the sales funnel?
2. Make brainstorming f-u-n
61% of successful B2B content marketers meet with their content team daily or weekly. You’ll be seeing these guys a lot, so you want them to feel motivated to share ideas. Too quickly dismissing an idea, or worst, putting someone down for sharing a not-so-great idea could make a team member feel that they are no longer valuable, preventing them from sharing in the future. All ideas should be considered without judgement. Brainstorming isn’t an act, but a process. It’s like dominoes. Even if an idea ultimately falls, it paves the way for the next one. Create a safe space at meetings and keep encouraging your team members to think and innovate. Your group may even have fun as you fill up that editorial calendar.
3. Make writing a team effort
Allow everyone on the content marketing team, including outsourced members and even clients, to write and edit documents. At first, this may seem like it could get messy, but a helpful content management tool makes planning, creating and reviewing a breeze. The whole team can work in just one page and track each other’s revisions. Customize the workflow to designate the planner, writers, reviewers, designers and publisher, and edit the workflow as needed. Embedded with a comments section right in the platform, it’s easy to keep track of ideas and suggestions.
The editorial calendar will also keep everyone on track to know when blogs and social posts need to be completed and published. We use this template to build out our editorial calendar.
4. Make time to review
Set a regular time to meet with your team to share analytics reports so that everyone can see your progress. Sharing the results with stakeholders also helps them see the impact of your work and how the content may or may not be contributing to key business KPIs. Stakeholders can also help determine where to make improvements and can guide you in the right direction. If your group met, or even surpassed major goals, don’t forget to celebrate to make everyone feel valued and accomplished. They’ll be excited to show up to the office the next day knowing they’re surrounded by a supportive, positive team, rather than having to grind away in a cavernous work space alone.
5. Add some more help to the team
In marketing, it always seems like there’s so much you can do to launch a successful strategy or campaign. However, team size and capacity can limit your output. Sometimes managing your internal content team means looking outside the company for help.
Freelancers are an option to help pick up the slack when it comes to one-off blogs or pieces of content. Additionally, working with a specialized digital marketing agency can be a bigger solve for the long term. In this post, we weigh the pros and cons of both options. Whichever you pick, though, knowing that there are more players on the team will help your marketing department breathe a little easier.
As they say, team work makes the dream work. Two heads are better than one. Power in numbers. You get the idea. By building a solid foundation of respect and energy in your team, you’ll discover a motivated group, excited to conquer whatever task at hand, and don’t forget to celebrate!
Note: This post was originally published April 2017 and has been updated for relevancy.
